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Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

Zabel added that the staff “is focused on delivering service for our valued customers as best we can in the conditions we face.”

I waited one hour for a No. 41 bus Wednesday, even as non-bus vehicles whizzed past on a road which, at that point, had turned slushy.

A friend taking the same bus two hours later wound up walking an hour to get home, witnessing not one passing bus during her ordeal.

This, despite the fact TransLink has a “Snow Plan” it implements at the first sign of the stuff.

When things get slippery, particular problem areas for the company include the North Shore, Coquitlam, Simon Fraser University and Victoria Drive.

Chains aren’t used on bus tires because they are inappropriate on bare roads, says a company statement that warns: “Customers themselves need to be prepared for any eventuality, including longer than usual waits for buses or SkyTrain and the possibility of having to walk if a bus is ... rerouted.

“One should dress appropriately for the elements and wear proper footwear.”

But surely, when weather turns harsh, that’s when citizens most need transit. It might be reasonable to argue that services might falter in a hurricane or blizzard, but Wednesday’s fluffy snowfall?

Metro Vancouver should be able to keep its $1.28-billion transit company functioning when some snow falls — as it does most every year; this is Canada.

The situation grew more absurd Wednesday afternoon when a spanking new $3.3-billion Port Mann Bridge started raining down ice chunks on cars, forcing its closure.

Both taxpayers and transit users, who incidentally are facing a Jan. 1 hike in transit fares, have reason to feel thoroughly fed up. Half of Coast Mountain’s budget comes from citizens’ taxes; another 35.6 per cent is derived from fares.

The truth is, in both bad weather and good, Coast Mountain — when set against counterparts in Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto — scores poorly on a host of measures.

A March 2012 report on Coast Mountain’s operations by Shirocca Consulting revealed: “compared to Canadian peers, the bus division exhibits an abundance of equipment and staffing levels that help to explain its generally higher costs and lower cost efficiency and effectiveness than most of the peers, even after taking into account its large service areas.”

The report noted “two disturbing trends [in] the rising cost per passenger carried and decline in the number of passengers carried per hour.”

It further reported outsized administrative costs as well as the highest fares when multi-zone pricing is factored in.

Shirocca Consulting called on Coast Mountain to improve “productivity in both bus service delivery and maintenance.”

While the transit company bears blame, governments need to own some of the mess on display Wednesday.

In an October 2011 report, A Blueprint for a National Transit Framework, the Mowat Centre pointed out that efficient transit is crucial to the success of “large city regions”.

Canada’s cities lack resources to expand and maintain their transit systems, and “there has historically been insufficient financial support from other levels of government, particularly the federal government.”

Canada is the only G7 economy failing to provide predictable, dedicated funding for transit systems.

That said, it’s hard to believe transit systems elsewhere in Canada would collapse under the weight of a few centimetres of snow as Coast Mountain did this week.

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